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DIY RTL SDR: Building a 100kHz-1.7GHz Software Defined Radio

Using a common DVB-T USB stick (w/ RTL2832U chip) is clearly the cheapest way to get into the world of Software Defined Radios. But there is a huge drawback: RX below ~50MHz is not possible. So if you are looking for a solution which covers HF frequencies, a DVB-T stick is not an option. Browsing through eBay I found SDR’s which cover a range from 100kHz up to 1.7GHz. Those particular SDR’s are available either fully assembled (~ 50 USD) or as an assembly kit (~ 25 USD). To keep my hand in soldering I decided to order the assembly kit which took ~ 2 weeks to arrive from China. If you consider buying one of those kits make sure you got a proper soldering tip: Two 0.1mm wires need to be soldered to the RTL2832U chip.

Running the SDR – Windows & Linux

It doesn’t take much for MS Windows users to get this SDR to work: First of all, download Zadig and replace the driver (“Options” – “List All Devices”). After a reboot, download and install SDR# or any other software package you are comfortable with (HDSDR, etc.). Set the sampling rate to 2048 and choose “Direct sampling Q branch” when listening to HF frequencies. For VHF/UHF frequencies the standard setting “Quadrature sampling” is perfectly fine.

First test with SDR#

Linux users may test the SDR by installing the Osmocom RTL SDR package. After setting up all necessary packages, type the following command into the CLI:root@debian:~# rtl_test -t

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